As Bangladesh develops, it requires to adequately develop its working systems. With the increasing number of graduates, a huge pool of talent is being created in the market. In order to attract and retain these talents the HR (human resource) department of an organisation plays a big role. For they are the ones who prepare the recruitment process, and select and hire suitable candidates from the pool of applicants. HR practices should be strategised properly, as the company's success depends on the quality of employees recruited and retained in the company.
The leading multinational companies operating in Bangladesh, strategise their recruitment process carefully. Following the current trend and keeping in mind the future goals and challenges, they come up with the best recruitment strategy, be it internally or externally. The local companies of Bangladesh generally lack in having an efficient and effective recruitment process. They have a somewhat planned external recruitment process, but their internal recruitment process needs to be improved; they are losing their qualified employees to the foreign companies. Although some local companies have updated with the trend, there are still a large number of companies who are required to bring in changes in order to succeed in the long run.
Most of the local companies in Bangladesh are still following the traditional internal recruitment practices, such as referrals from other team members, directly approaching the potential candidate, posting in company bulletins, etc. Such traditional internal recruitment process cannot bring organisational success. There is also the issue of not using technology in the best possible way along with having well-trained recruiters..
SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERNAL RECRUITMENT:
● Helps recruitment managers to learn about the competence and aspirations of their workforce, while employees learn about their potential roles in the organisation. This creates organisational transparency and hence increases employee engagement and retention while minimising productivity time.
● Reorganising the existing employees within the organisation is often more effective and efficient for filling job vacancies rather than hiring externally. According to research conducted by HCI and Oracle and released in early 2015, 60 per cent of 291 employers said workers who were promoted into jobs performed significantly better than employees hired externally into similar positions. Over half of respondents (59 per cent) said their internal mobility opportunities made them more globally competitive
● It also gives the organisations the competitive edge they need in talent acquisition, especially when external talents are difficult to acquire. This also minimises the added hiring costs and time than hiring externally.
● As intellectual capital is difficult to replace, and having a solid internal application process is considered as a big benefit to companies, making it easier to recruit internally for vacant positions. With newly launched platforms for internal application, the internal applicant will be able to view new job requisitions and submit their resumes.
● Helps to gain feedbacks from both hiring managers and employees and prepare themselves for the future roles. This also enables the internal candidates to have a centralised location to review the company's job openings, and recruitment managers can start to review the skill sets of those internal employees against the job requisitions.
● Internal recruitment enables the organisation to retain employees, who are searching for jobs outside of their current company in the absence of upward mobility opportunities.
SUGGESTIONS:
1. Design an efficient internal recruiting policy. Before planning to recruit internally, the companies should come up with a concrete recruiting plan. For instance, they must determine who will lead and conduct the internal recruitment process. Efficient policies should also be developed. The companies also need to develop clear policies that will guide the employees, so that they know what to expect when they apply for that particular job vacancy within the company.
2. Internal job posting. The companies should develop or create a job posting system that ensures that all employees within the company who are qualified for the post get the chance to apply for that particular vacant post. Internal job postings are significant as it attracts top employees who are actively looking for new opportunities of career development.
3. Improve the recruitment process using technology. Currently applicant tracking system, which has been developed for better recruiting system, is a recruitment software that is commonly used to make the recruitment process easier and more transparent. One of the biggest setbacks of internal recruitment in local companies is favouritism and lack of transparency in their recruitment process. By embracing such technology, the local companies can completely eliminate the element of favouritism and lack of transparency. Elimination of this factor will enable the local companies to hire the best and most qualified candidate for the vacant position.
4. Screen interested candidates carefully. If an employee performs well in one position that does not automatically mean he/she will perform well when transferred to a new department or a different job position within the company. The local companies should refrain from playing favourites when recruiting because it will compromise the quality of candidate that the company will hire. Close friends and family members should be treated in the same way just like the other applicants.
5. Offer feedback. It is appropriate to give candidates who were not successful, the reasons why they were not selected, so that, they get to know their places for further improvement. The companies should provide them with appropriate tips and tricks that will help them to grow and develop in their career. This will help the employees to enhance their chances of being successful the next time they apply for any job vacancies in the company.
For becoming a successful company in the market the local companies should know how to retain their qualified employees. Employees are the "human capital" for an organisation. It is the responsibility of the companies to nurture them and make them valuable in the interest of the companies themselves.
Nusrat Sayeeda Chowdhury, Senior Section In-charge/Teacher at Mastermind English Medium School, is pursuing an MBA course
